A routine dive for two amateur divers turned nostalgic when they found an engraved engagement ring that has been resting on the ocean bottom since 1917. The simple band with the inscription on the inside To Stanley, From Flo, March 1916 and was found perfectly preserved and turned out to be an artifact from the HMS Opal ship that sank in a snowstorm on January 12, 1918 killing 189 sailors.
The divers who found the engagement ring did an internet search for the casualty list of the HMS Opal and found the name Stanley Cubiss on the list. The divers were able to track down Stanley Cubiss’s 78 year old nephew, Malcom Cubiss, who told the tale of Florence and Stanley and their love cut short by tragedy. Malcom Cubiss reported that the engagement ring was given by Florence to Stanley a year before they married. Stanley and Florence were newlyweds when the HMS Opal sank.
It has been 90 years since the HMS has sunk but those that were lost in the disaster have not been forgotten. Malcom Cubiss plans on donating the engagement ring and pictures of the couples to a naval museum in the Orkneys that collects artifacts from the disaster. For those that visit the museum in the Orkneys will find that the story of Stanley and Florence has a bit of a twist due to the fact that Florence gave Stanley an engagement ring, but without the engagement ring from Florence to Stanley, their story would have never been told.
